Two Words
by PrettyPrettyPlease
Summary: Arthur never fails at bartering for people's lives. Except once: the only time it mattered. "Is this Arthur?" The aforementioned nodded stiffly with warnings etched in his face. "Good. You're the one she's been screaming for."


Hey now, guys =) I'm still in the process of writing my two **multichapter** fics. The one that's closest to being done, I'm either entitling **Trauma** or **Nightmare in Reality** and the other will be **Follow the Red.** So in a couple weeks itd be awesome if you started looking for them. I'll post a summary on my profile real soon, haha. And thanks for your continued encouragement about Say It! Anyways, I miss posting and I was bored in class one day so that's how this fic baby was born. It's roots were inspired by a scene in LOST and thankfully helped my writer's block.

**Two Words.  
>(1)<strong>** (2)**

He trusted her. He trusted that she could get her bag of sketches undetected like she insisted but it shouldn't have taken her this long; he should've accompanied her. When her walkie talkie began sending waves of static, the boys hovered around to find out what had happened. Was she having difficulty laying low?

"Ari?" Cobb asked tentatively.

Well it wasn't her voice that answered. It was a rumbling gruff voice that snickered teasingly at them. "Oh, we're standing safely outside," the man said, amused, "Why don't we have a face to face chat, though? You're architect is missing you."

Arthur's figure tensed. His shoulders rolled back, he stood straighter and he snatched the walkie from Cobb, "I'll handle this." The remainder of the team slinked into the shadows behind the Point Man as he drew back the curtain to their safe house. Ariadne was kneeling on the ground, dirty and bruised, hands restrained behind her back, head being held up by the brown tendrils of her hair. Standing next to her, a man of tall stature, uniformed like a soldier, roughly pulling at her hair and welcoming the team's eyes with his simper. The sight was nauseating for Cobb, Yusuf, Eames and Arthur.

Soon the evil voice sailed back through the walkie talkie, "Is this Arthur?" The aforementioned stiffly nodded, warnings etched in his face. "Good. You're the one she's been screaming for."

The Point Man's fist clenched around the Walkie Talkie but his expression changed to that of boredom. Arthur tore his gaze from the brutally handled Ariadne and looked over her in an attempt to make locking away his emotions for her easier. In order to retrieve her he would have to treat it like a business deal. Like there was no attachment between them; she was a pawn the team wanted back to play more games with. That was how you had to approach things, "You want something?"

"Yes. I'm Mr. Crowley, I work for COBOL-as you might have guessed- and COBOL wants your team to turn yourselves in to be used at our dispense."

"And we would agree to that because….?"

"After use, your Architect's life will be spared."

Arthur rolled his eyes, "I wouldn't even think to believe you. We both know the second my team and I step outside this house, you'll gun us all down."

The man chided, "You really think I'm that kind of man?"

The Point Man's voice spewed monotonously, "Benjamin Crowley. Former military. Released on dishonorable discharge. Knocked up Molly Hartley at nineteen years of age and abandoned her shortly after. A juvenile delinquent that went on to be a COBOL mole in Saito's company. Cocky, aggressive, compulsive liar yet not the brightest crayon in the box. Born March 20th , 1986 to Beth and George Crowley but your father abused your mother and she died November 6th, 1998. So yes, Mr. Crowley, I know exactly what kind of man _you _are and we can dispense with the formalities."

Crowley's response? "Let's speed this up, buddy." He snorted, pulled a pistol from his back pocket, cocked it and jammed it into the back of Ariadne's head. She could hear Eames in the background of the Talkie calling her capturer a bastard, Yusuf panicking, Cobb warning Arthur and Arthur aggravatingly quieting them all. They wouldn't kill her, Arthur was sure, so he stood unresponsive.

"Last offer."Not a flinch from Arthur. Not a word. They watched Crowley roughly shove Ariadne's head away from him and shove the talkie to her face, "Say goodbye."

The Architect's voice was the one to break Arthur's steely resolve, "Arthur? Arthur, they're serious! Please I need your help."

He forced himself to meet her eyes and calmly promised, "It's ok, Ariadne. I have it under control. Don't you worry." His voice and gaze became gentle for a split second and she nodded her head. She took a deep breath, sat up straighter and put on a brave face. Her actions displayed her faith in him, her escaping tears showed the insurmountable fear that she tried to hide. The Talkie was transferred back to Crowley and Arthur prepared to play his game. He never lost a bartering battle. He always outwitted the opponent. "If you're looking for collateral, you're looking in the wrong place, Mr. Crowley."

"Arthur…." Eames tried to interrupt.

Arthur continued, "Just let her go. She means nothing to us. Nothing to me. She's nothing but a pawn in this big game between us." He swallowed the guilt that came with her frantic head shake and fresh crocodile tears, "She's just another Architect."

"Arthur!" Ariadne begged him to stop his stabbing words but he ignored her, lost in his lies. After she was safe he could apologize over and over for his untruths and kiss her nonstop to make up for them. "We're not cowering to COBOL. Not for someone as insignificant as _that_. Someone so _replaceable_. She's of no use to anyone here, your team or mine."

The Architect squeezed her eyes shut and yelled to him through the haze of her tears, "Arthur, _please _stop_!_ They're serious!"

"…We're not stepping one foot outside of this freaking house…"

Cobb, Eames and Yusuf protested his words. Tried to relent for him, tried to bargain for her life. Cobb and Eames offering to do so.

"So if you want to shoot her—"

Ariadne's voice whimpered raggedly, "Arthur, PLEASE! They'll do it!"

Cobb and Eames grabbed their guns and made their way to the front door to end this mess.

"**Go **(1) **ahead **(2) and—"

Her form slumped to the ground.  
>Her tears stopped, her voice silenced, her blood spilled.<p>

Arthur stared, frozen in disbelief. His eyes became void as Crowley laughed and kicked Ariadne's lifeless body, "And to think she actually believed you wouldn't let anything happen to her….a bit selfish boys…shows what kind of men _you _are." The man sauntered off with promise to return.

Yusuf slid down the wall. Eames leaned against a chair and rubbed his face with his hand. Cobb punched the wall and threw his gun at Arthur's feet, cussing him out. What did Arthur do? He remained expressionless. He turned from the window like a robot and slowly walked to the coffee table to set the Walkie Talkie down. He buttoned his suit nonchalantly and smoothed down his gelled hair. Mechanically, he selected the machine gun, loaded it and slid several extra clips into his pockets. Like a zombie he inched towards the front door, calmly opened it and stepped outside.

With swift, detached movements he shot down every man within a five mile radius of their safe house, including the retreating Mr. Crowley. At first, he shot the back of the man's knee, which pissed his opponent off. Mr. Crowley pulled out his own gun and began sprinting with his limp back to fighting ground. Arthur standing stoic, unimpressed. Once within convenient distance, Arthur shot the man's other knee and watched him topple down without reaction. His brain seeming empty, he made his way to Crowley and rolled him over. Arthur kicked the gun from the man's hands and shot his feet. Slowly, with no trace of revenge or anger, Arthur made his way up Crowley's body with bullets, piercing every body part until he came to Crowley's agonizingly yelling head. Expressionless, Arthur put a bullet between his eyes and kicked the body the over to face down. Behind him, the Point Man heard a shout from another COBOL gofer and nimbly turned and eliminated him as well. This action, brought Arthur to face the window so the other men could see his state of being. He looked as if he were sleepwalking. They watched him limply drop the gun and roll his die. Unfazed and blank faced, he picked it up and rolled it again. And again and again and again and again until finally his unseeing eyes slowly rested on the girl lying in front of him.

Suddenly The Point Man lost support of his knees and dropped down to her. His demeanor completely changed. The other boys could see his heart break as his blank stare softened and filled with tears. The clean slate of his face scrunched. They saw him cradle Ariadne's body to him and kiss her hair, her eyes, her cheeks, her lips, staining himself with her blood. They watched as he buried his face into her neck and rubbed circles on her back. They saw him wipe the hair out of her face, saw him caress her face and whisper apologies, saw him hold her hands and cry into her clothes.

Before long, he stood and carefully picked her up bridal style and carried her into their safe house. He brushed passed the men indifferently, the same zombielike, expressionless face from his massacre plastered on. He sat on the couch and let her rest across his lap as if she fell asleep on him. The hole in her head was crusted and covered with her bangs; most of her blood smeared on his suit and face and neck and hands. He stared ahead and absentmindedly traced her hands with his again. Face red. Tear stains crusting over. Time stopped. His world faded to black and white, as the reality settled into him. Arthur felt the most emotion he would ever feel while his heart wrenched and engineered itself into an abyss.

The only thing worth living for was the sound of Ariadne's heartbeat and he'd silenced it with two words.

**End.**

No happy ending this time…sucks. Not everything in life gets a happy ending though. I thought about making it a nightmare but made myself keep the death. You guys can think it was a dream though, or you can think that she was just a projection or something and the real Ariadne was hidden away somewhere and they all just thought she was dead like in that one fic where Arthur gets shot and Ariadne lives with Eames and then Arthur shows up like 'hey, I'm alive, that was a ruse to get the bad guy off of us…lalalla…' I love that story :)

Review please and I'll love you.


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